(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to multi purpose stands, and more particularly to a portable and foldable drink stand with various attachments that can be snapped on the stand as required.
(2) Description of Related Art
Foldable stands have been an economical solution for different indoor and outdoor occasions such as performances, meetings, conferences, and especially for camping trips. A foldable stand can be folded into compact packets during transportation and provides greater maneuverability and stability while traveling. The greatest advantage with foldable stands is that they offer flexible space management in small areas. They are lightweight, easy to stack and carry. Foldable stands in varying sizes and shapes are available in aluminum or plastic. U.S. Pat. No. 20050040297 to Saraf on Feb. 24, 2005 explains a multi-purpose ground stand used to securely affix an umbrella or any like device. The device is fixed into any malleable surface such as sand, grass, gravel or dirt and the device is intended to accommodate any size or shape of commercially available beach or sun umbrellas. These stands have been intended to use for only umbrellas and limited to outdoor applications where they must be pushed in to the ground to achieve stability. This approach does not allow for use of the product on hard surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,901 to Tisbo on Jan. 16, 1996 relates to a tray table of modular construction with readily replaceable and interchangeable plastic molded components that can be assembled by hand. A pair of first legs and second legs is connected to the underside of the tray. Such a tray table is suitable for use in leveled surfaces and not suitable for use in sloped terrain due to its design constraints.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,211 to Mc Connell on May 9, 1989 teaches a foldable support for beverage container which can be quickly folded, assembled, disassembled, and adjusted to accommodate containers of a variety of sizes. Such bottle or glass holders are generally limited to very specific purposes. Moreover, these bottle or glass holders do not have the flexibility to hold many glasses at the same time. This bottle or glass holders do not have the ability to function at many different heights.
In order to avoid the above problems, U.S. Pat. No. 7,311,289 to Mori on Dec. 25, 2007, discloses a multi-purpose foldable stand that is simple in structure and capable of using on a table and when not in use, the stand is folded into a compact size for storage. The stand has two identical U-shaped frames. Each of the frames includes a horizontal leg portion, an upright support portion, and a horizontal arm portion, to which spring clips or hooks are attached for suspending articles. Such a multi-purpose foldable stand is assigned themselves to indoor and decorative uses and not for outdoor practical usage. Usually, these devices which accomplish its goal are typically difficult for storage or for disassembling the parts.
While many of the prior art designs provide a certain basic amount of stability, each of these stands is quite limited since it is designed to support the item for which it was specifically designed. Furthermore, most all of these traditional stand designs cannot be set up on ground that is not planar and level and in most-every case, traditional stand designs are suitable for supporting a single article.
All referenced patents, applications and literatures are incorporated herein by reference to their entirety. Furthermore, where a definition or use of a term in a reference, which is incorporated by reference herein is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of the term in the reference does not apply. The invention may seek to satisfy one or more of the above-mentioned desire. Although the present invention may obviate one or more of the above-mentioned desires, it should be understood that some aspects of the invention might not necessarily obviate them.
In these respects, the portable stand according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and so doing provides a portable stand that is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art portable drink stand, either alone or in combination thereof